Knowing Your Future

by Whateverdudezb

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: this story is nonprofit and the author has no ownership over the characters or setting.

Her leg was very warm.
Specifically, her left, rear leg was much warmer than the rest of her body.
It also felt a bit numb.
Opening her bleary eyes just slightly, Twilight turned her head to look for the source of her leg’s warm numbness.
Ah, it was just her friends. They were sleeping together in a big pile in the middle of her library and her leg was just squashed under Rainbow Dash’s stomach.
No biggie.
With a little force, Twilight managed to extract her leg from under her athletic friend. She then curled up into a ball for comfort and tried to get back to sleep. A somewhat difficult task to do on the library’s cold hard wooden floor, but she was sure that if she simply cleared her thoughts, she’d manage a small nap in no time.
Just clear her thoughts.
Listen to the steady breathing of her friends…
And…
…
Twilights eyes leaped open and in a flash she remembered all of the events prior to waking up.
Danger.
She and her friends were in grave danger.
Now fully awake and alert, Twilight jumped up to a standing position. She turned to the pile of her friends, channeled her magic for a levitation spell, and…
Promptly threw Pinkie’s ax into one of the kitchens cupboards, which she then locked.
“Whew,” Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as she leaned against the kitchen counter. Well, now that everyone is good and safe, she should go and wake up her friends and try to figure out what kind of situation they’ve gotten into this time.
“Girls!” Twilight called loudly as she walked back into the main interior room of the library, “Girls, wake up!”
Always an early riser, Applejack was the first to yawn herself awake, “I’m up, I’m up, those apples ain’t gonna buck themselves.” Taking a moment to shake off her drowsiness, Applejack was able to take note of her surrounding, and after another moment, remembered why she was in Twilight’s library, “Oh, right.”
One by one her friends slowly woke up and shook off their drowsiness, except for Pinkie Pie. Because of the fact that her bloodstreams were chock full of caffeine and sugar, she simply woke up wide awake without any sense of drowsiness whatsoever. With a body like that the doctors still don’t know how she was able to live to marehood. Of course, they also incorrectly predicted the lifespan of that special-needs colt down at the Grape’s farm, so what the buck do they know.
Anyways, now that most of her friends were awake, Twilight turned to a particular pony who was lagging behind in the awake department.
“Mmm… five more minutes Twi,” mumbled Rainbow Dash sleepily, “or… twenty.”
Rolling her eyes at that, Twilight lightly prodded Rainbow Dash in the stomach, “C’mon, wake up. A mad doctor just used us to conduct some sort of powerful ritual and we need to figure out what it did.”
And in an instant, Rainbow Dash was off the floor and in the air.
“Oh, yeah!” she yelled out, “Where is that smug-filled doctor!? He’s gonna be pounded grain once I’m done with him.”
“He’s not here,” said Twilight, who was helping Fluttershy stand up.
“Tch, must have run off scared when he saw that his magical ritual thing didn’t work,” commented Rainbow Dash as she crossed her forehooves.
“I’m not too sure about that,” replied Twilight, with hints of caution in her voice, “I mean, we don’t even know what it was supposed to do, let alone if it even worked. For all we know, it could have used us to open the gates of Tartarus and give Cerberus a bone to chew …or three.”
“They do like their bones,” added Fluttershy.
“Either way, this will require some extensive researching,” continued Twilight, as she turned to look down at the ritual markings still present on her floor, no longer a burning white in color, but instead a charcoal black. Turning back to face her friends, she gave them all a warm smile, “I’ll take care of that, why don’t you guys go out, I’m sure that you’ve all got your own responsibilities to take care of, not to mention family and friends who are concerned about your absence.”
“Oh my!” exclaimed Fluttershy, “Angel must be worried sick right now. And all those sick and injured animals! Oh, they’ll never forgive me for leaving them unattended.”
“Hey, don’t worry Shy, I’m sure they’re all fine,” Rainbow Dash assured her concerned friend, “I mean we’ve probably only slept for just a couple of hours, tops.”
“Few hours or not, I do have chores that need doing,” said Applejack, “so come on ya’ll, let’s leave Twiligh’ to do her thing.” And with that, she started trotting toward the door with friends in tow. Right as she was about to open the door, she turned her head back with an eyebrow raised, “Uh, Rarity? You commin’ or what?”
Standing over the ritual marking with a perceived stare, Rarity couldn’t help but feel that there was something out of place. As if something was missing from this picture.
She then blinked in realization.
“Applejack, could you come over here for a minute, please.”
Eyebrow still raised in confusion, Applejack nevertheless complied, leaving Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie to exit the building without her.
“What’s on your mind?” she asked Rarity.
Turning toward Applejack, Rarity said, “When we were imprisoned by that nefarious doctor, didn’t you try to dig your way out?”
“Ah, shucks,” Applejack turned and addressed Twilight, “sorry about breaking your floor, Twiligh’.”
“It’s alright,” replied Twilight, waving a hoof dismissingly, “you were just doing what you could to escape, so it’s understandable.”
“Still, I wouldn’ feel righ’ if I didn’ offer to help fix it.”
“And how exactly do you plan on fixing the broken floorboards, when there are no broken floorboards that need fixing,” questioned Rarity.
“What ya’ll talkin about?” asked Applejack, “they’re right over… there…?”
Applejack was pointing at finely-furnished, if somewhat dusty, floorboards.
“…Oh.”
“That’s weird,” commented Twilight. She was sure that she saw Applejack break her floor.
“Do you think the ritual’s magic fixed it somehow?” asked Rarity.
“I’m not familiar with any rituals that would do that,” responded Twilight. Putting a hoof under her chin, she gave the matter some thought and said, “I should probably consult my Guidebook to Archaic Rituals just to be sure though.”
Channeling her magic, Twilight levitated the book from its rack and brought it over to herself to read.
BONK!
…or tried to at least.
“What the…?” Twilight turned to her shelves of books in confusion. Rows and rows of books were lined across the library wall just as they’ve always been. The book that Twilight wanted, currently levitating and wrapped in a purple magical aurora, was just a few inches away from where it had originally been resting.
And where it stayed.
Because it had hit a glass wall.
Trotting up to the location of her confusion, Twilight saw that every single one of her book shelves were encased behind glass windows, blocking her access to her books. At each bottom left corner of these glass cabinets was a keyhole which was most undoubtedly used to lock and unlock the glass container it was attached to.
This was quite odd to Twilight, who didn’t ever remember having any of these new additions in her library.
In fact, now that Twilight really looked around the room, she could see that there were quite some differences to her library. The Trojan-style horse bust in the middle of her table was also encased in glass, there were gold plated plaques posted under each book shelf that listed the titles of each book, and there were even red velvet ropes positioned in front of the stairs that led up to her bedroom and the stairs that led down to her basement, as if they were put there to prevent ponies from accessing those parts of the building.
It was almost as if her library had been turned into a museum.
Twilight was very confused.
“Uh, Twiligh’ did you install all these glass boxes when we were all sleeping?” asked an equally confused Applejack, “’Cause I don’ remember these being in here before.”
Twilight shook her head, “No, no, I wouldn’t do this. It’s too much of a burden to have my books behind glass. I mean, sure they would be safe, but it would be such a hassle to deal with when I’m retrieving my books. Not to mention, Spike would have an even bigger fit than usual when I ask him to rearrange the books…” Twilight stopped what she was saying.
“SPIKE!” shouted Twilight with an expression of sheer worry on her face, “Oh Celestia! I can’t believe I completely forgot about him!”
Sprinting franticly towards her front door, Twilight, with concern in her heart and in her tone of voice, said, “I have to go to Canterlot to make sure he’s safe and sound!”
Charging out of her doorway, Twilight took off in flight and headed straight for Canterlot.
…or she would have been, if she hadn’t collided with Pinkie rump.
“Oof!” Twilight exasperated as she fell back on her own rump. “Pinkie! Why are you standing in front of my door like that?” asked a somewhat irritated Twilight.
But Pinkie didn’t answer.
“Pinkie…?”
Pinkie Pie just stood statuesque, her back to Twilight. On her left and on her right, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash stood just as still as Pinkie.
Confused, Twilight trotted up to their side and got a look at their faces.
Their jaws hanged open in shocked awe and they were staring in wide-eyed confusion at something before them.
“What are you girls staring… at…” Twilight started to ask, before the question died on her lips. She had turned to see what they were looking at and she had immediately adopted the same expression that her friends had. Not long after, Rarity and Applejack trotted out of the library and they too were shocked and awed at what they were seeing.
Ponyville.
Ponyville was different.
The small town still had its wooden buildings and dirt roads, but there were subtle differences. There were more buildings that they could see, and some of those buildings were also quite bigger than the rest of them. A lot of the buildings that they were familiar with had different paint jobs or added-on porches and balconies that weren't there before. Gardens still dotted household yards, but they were all in different places than they used to be. There were public fountains where there should have been empty space.
But these types of things were not what were holding the six mares’ attentions.
Not at all.
The things just listed would most undoubtedly give them all an expression of confusion and worry.
But not the shock and awed faces that they currently hold.
No, what has them so enraptured is not anything from Ponyville itself, but rather what they saw in the horizon.
Tall gray skyscrapers reaching toward the large blue ocean that was the sky.
They saw a city.
A city that wasn’t there before.
“Oh…” whimpered Fluttershy.
“My…” Rarity exclaimed dramatically.
“Buckin’…” Applejack cursed.
“Celestia…” exclaimed Twilight.
“DIMENSIONAL CAKE ON A STICK IN A PARRALEL UNIVERSE!” Shouted Pinkie.
“Shi-wait, what?” Rainbow Dash was about to do her own personalized expletive, but was just so floored by what Pinkie had said that she just couldn’t finish it. And as one, the whole group turned to Pinkie Pie.
“Isn’t it obvious!?!?” Pinkie Pie was franticly swinging her head around to look at each of them.
Slowly, and quite cautiously too, they all shook their head in the negative.
“That crazy doctor used his magical ritual thingy to transport us to an alternate dimension!” explained Pinkie, “Just like in all those stories that comic book writers write when they want a flimsy excuse to do a crossover with another comic book series!”
“Like in Marevengers Vs. Justice Guild of Equestria!” exclaimed Rarity.
Now everypony turned to Rarity with surprise on their face.
Seeing the looks she was receiving, Rarity explained, “Sometimes Spike accidently leaves his comics behind at my boutique when he comes over to help with a task that I need done, and besides it’s not exactly a bad read if you can get past the cheesiness of it all.”
Their curiosity fulfilled, they all turned back to the matter at hoof.
“So, Twilight!” said Pinkie Pie excitably, now mere inches from Twilight’s face as she hopped up and down in excitement, “Do you think we’re in another dimension!? Huh!? Huh!? ...Huh!?”
“Uh… I… er… well,” Twilight was absolutely flabbergasted at Pinkie’s question, and also a little bit uncomfortable at her personal space being invaded by the pink pony, “um… I… guess it’s possible?”
“OH! MY! GOSH!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed so loudly, “We’re in another dimension! We’re in another dimension!” She chanted as she jumped around them all in celebration.
“Wait!” she said suddenly as she stopped in mid-jump, “But which dimension are we in?”
“Uh… which?” Fluttershy dared to ask.
“Of course!” said Pinkie who was now suddenly beside Fluttershy.
“Eep!”
“There are a million-bajillion-kazillion kinds of universes out there and we could be in any one of them!” explained Pinkie seriously, she then got a dastardly look on her face, “In fact, maybe…”
Out of nowhere, Pinkie had suddenly appeared right next to Twilight, and with a shake of her rump she hit Twilight’s cutie mark, which… somehow caused Twilight’s horn to cast a spell on Pinkie’s face.
So now she has a mustache.
“We’re in the evil alternate universe! Muahahaha!” Pinkie Pie laughed manically as she twirled her mustache all evil like and such. “Where the evil versions of us hold the Elements of Disharmony and a team of Diamond Dogs, Griffons, and Breezies have to defeat us in order to save the world!”
Rubbing her violated horn tenderly, Twilight looked at Pinkie in confusion, “How did you…?”
“Or maybe…” interrupted Pinkie as she masterfully avoided any sort of explanation. Sans the mustache, Pinkie had let her hair, um, deflate and was now speaking in a monotonous tone, “we’re in the opposite dimension. Where I’m all serious and boring, Fluttershy is rude and reckless, Rarity is ugly and unpopular, Applejack is an aristocrat, Twilight is a dumb athlete, and Rainbow is not.”
“Hahaha-hey!” argued Rainbow, cutting her laughter short.
Rarity raised her hoof up to stifle her giggles.
“Or maybe…” Pinkie was at it again, only this time her face had an even more dastardly appearance than she did when she was talking about the evil universe, “we’re in the gender bent universe where we’re all stallions! Hehehehe, if that's true, then I sure wouldn’t mind partying hard with Bubble Berry.”
“Uh… what?” asked Twilight.
Sidling up to Rainbow Dash, Pinkie put a hoof around her neck, “You know Rainbow, I’m sure that you would love to try a double Rainboom with Blitz.”
“Blitz, huh?” Dash pondered the name.
Now Pinkie was next to Twilight, “Twilight! I bet you and Dusk Shine will have all sorts of books that you two can read, together.”
“Dusk Shi-wait, what?” blanched Twilight.
Pinkie was now curled up next to Fluttershy, “And Fluttershy! I’m sure once you got to know Butterscotch you’ll find that he is just the sweetest.”
Fluttershy did her very best to hide her blush behind her mane.
Rarity soon found Pinkie standing next to her, “My turn now?”
“Yep!” answered Pinkie with a smile, “and since you and Elusive own a boutique, I bet that you two will have all kinds of garments that the two of you could try on together.”
“I suppose it would be nice to be in the company of somepony with a sense of fashion in them for once,” replied Rarity mischievously.
“And Applejack!” Pinkie popped up next to the orange apple farmer, “I bet you and …uh…?”
Applejack was now sporting a smirk at seeing Pinkie try to think up of a name.
“Um… Apple… john?” Pinkie tried.
“Hehe, nice try there sugarcube,” Applejack assured Pinkie, “but, I’m pretty sure it would just be Applejack.”
Pinkie just shrugged at that, “Meh, either way, I’m sure the bucking will be nice.”
That was it.
“Bwahahah!” laughed Rainbow Dash, who was soon followed by the rest of her friends. After all the crazy things that have been happening to them, they all needed a good laugh.
“Heheh, thanks for that Pinkie,” Twilight said with a smile.
“No problemo Twilight!” Pinkie saluted her friend. A job well done.
“Alright, but in all seriousness, I don’t think we’re actually in another dimension,” said Twilight.
“What!? But how can you be sure!?” questioned Pinkie dramatically.
Twilight glanced back toward her library where the ritual markings were still present before turning back to address her friends, “I’m not that familiar with archaic rituals, but from what I do know, that ritual doesn’t seem to have anything to do with crossing interdimensional boundaries.”
“But then why is this place so different?” asked Rainbow Dash, and to accentuate her point she pointed toward the city in the distance.
“And where is everypony anyways?” questioned Applejack. A very good question indeed, as they have yet to see a single pony walk the streets.
“I have no idea why this place is so different,” answered Twilight, “but for where everypony is though…” Looking around the area for something, Twilight spotted a rolled up newspaper. Using her magic to bring the paper to them, Twilight unfurled it and read the headline.
“Tomorrow is the Summer Sun Celebration,” Twilight read off of it.
“Oh! That explains it,” said Applejack, “the townsfolk must be in another part of Ponyville fixin’ up the decorations. See, this area is already all done up.” Applejack pointed toward all of the decorations hanging from the buildings, like the sun ribbons, the rainbow streamers, the ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ banners, and all of the stalls.
“And I, uh, I think I did hear some construction earlier,” added Fluttershy.
“Hey, yeah! I think I can hear some construction going on right now,” said Applejack, putting a hoof to her ear to hear better. Sounds of banging hammers and the grinding of saws reached her ears. “It sounds like it’s coming from over there,” Applejack pointed down a road that went by the Mayor’s office.
“Well, c’mon slowpokes! Let’s go say hi!” Pinkie was already cheerfully bouncing down said road, with her friends following her.
Except for Twilight, who stared at the decorations in confusion. The Summer Sun Celebration? But didn’t they already celebrate it just recently? Twilight looked back at the newspaper to check the date.
“Bouncy, bouncy, bou-woah!” Pinkie shouted as she tripped over something in front of the library.
“Pinkie! You okay?” asked Rainbow Dash as she helped up her hyperactive friend.
“Yeah, I just tripped over this rock,” she answered.
Rarity looked at said rock and said, “Pinkie, that’s an engraved plaque.”
“Really!? What does it say?” Pinkie asked enthusiastically.
“Hmmm,” Twilight hummed. According to this newspaper, the day and month was correct for the Summer Sun Celebration, but what’s with the year…?
Rarity started reading from the plaque, “This library was the home of Princess Twilight Sparkle during her stay at Ponyville from the date of-aaaugh!” Rarity screamed as she was suddenly levitated off the ground by a purple aurora.
“Don’t read that!” Shouted Twilight, her horn glowing with magic and her face filled with terror.
As one, the rest of her friends were lifted off of the ground by way of Twilight’s magic.
“Everypony back in the library!” commanded Twilight, as she hurriedly floated them all through the doorway. Herself trailing behind to lock the door.
“Twiligh’ what’s gotten into you?!” asked a worried Applejack.
Twilight threw the newspaper that she’s been holding down to Applejack’s hooves, “Read the date,” Twilight’s voice was frantic.
Her friends all crowded around the crumbled paper to see what all the fuss was about.
“We’re not in some alternate dimension or anything like that!” said Twilight.
Their eyes widened in surprise as they saw the date, specifically the year.
“We’re in the future!” Twilight exclaimed with fear in her voice, “A hundred-fifty years in the future!”

“The future?” Celestia asked.
“Yep,” Dr. Whooves nodded, not really looking at Celestia, but instead presiding over the white ritual markings that still covered the library floor. His enchanted screwdriver glowing a blue glow as the Doctor used it in unknown ways on the ritual.
Celestia and the Doctor were alone in Ponyville’s library. When Celestia heard what happened from Spike, she flew him back to Ponyville, but asked Spike to wait outside, so that she could confront the Doctor alone.
“You sent an Equestrian princess and her five friends, all of whom are national heroes I might add, into the future?” Celestia asked more specifically.
“Yep,” Dr. Whooves confirmed again.
“And you didn’t go with them?”
“…Nope.”
“How far into the future did you send them?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“And why not?” Asked Celestia in a tone that told the Doctor that he better be careful of what he said.
“I don’t know,” he responded.
“Doctor…” warned Celestia.
“Look,” the Doctor said sternly as he finally looked up to talk to Celestia face-to-face, “the letter I got said that everything I’m doing right now is related to a fixed point in time, and you know how dangerous and how wrong it is to try and change them, so I have to do exactly as the letter said or very, very bad things will happen.”
“…Alright,” Celestia relented, “but may you at least tell me when they will get back?”
The Doctor smiled, “Oh, don’t worry. They should be back in a day or so.”
Celestia gave the Doctor a pleasant smile, “Oh Doctor, of all the ones that I have met, you are one of the most amazing and wonderful ponies this universe has ever seen.”
The Doctor’s smile faltered as he was suddenly levitated off the floor by Celestia’s magic and he found himself just above eye level with the princess, except that he was floating upside-down.
“But…” uttered Celestia, her smile gone and her voice serious, “I am not that mischievous Princess that you courted all those centuries ago.”
“I did what!?” the Doctor exclaimed, surprise evident on his face.
With a small smile back on her face, Celestia leaned forward and gave the doctor a peck on his nose.
“Spoilers,” she whispered mysteriously.
“Uh…?” The Doctor responded intelligently.
The smile on Celestia’s face stayed there just a bit longer than she intended, simply because of the look on the Doctor’s face.
But that smile did eventually disappear.
“The point is, Doctor,” Celestia continued in her grave voice, “is that I’ve had millennium of experience with politics…”
The Doctor was brought closer, to gaze into Celestia burning eyes.
“So I know when somepony is lying to me.”
He couldn’t help it, a long lifespan of self-control be damned, he gulped nervously at the powerful goddess before him.
“And I also know that you are not the perfect being that so many ponies confuse you for. Just like they confuse me for the same,” admitted Celestia, still giving the Doctor a burning stare, “So I know that you make mistakes just like everypony else does. The difference with you though, is that your mistakes are much, much more costly.”
The Doctor stayed silent.
“And I am speaking from personal experience, as I am sure that many of your own friends have had something similar,” Celestia’s mane became almost fiery, “but sometimes when you say a couple of minutes or a day, what actually happens is that ponies end up waiting for years or more.”
Dr. Whooves was sweating, and it wasn’t out of nervousness, the temperature in the room had been steadily rising at Celestia’s words.
And Celestia’s burning stare pierced him immensely.
“Twilight and her friends do not deserve that.”
“I’ll fix this. I’ll fix this. You have my word that I will do my best to fix this,” assured the Doctor in a tone that somehow sounded both nervous and courageous.
“Do your best?” repeated Celestia, a smile slowly appearing on her face, “failures do their best. Ponies that actually succeed at what they set out to accomplish go to the castle and…” Celestia leaned forward and whispered words into the Doctor’s ear that he thought he would never hear coming from a princess. The fact that Celestia was currently soaked in raw, burning magical power only enticed the situation ever more.
But then the moment was over. Celestia withdrew her power, the temperature in the room went back to normal, and the Doctor was dropped unceremoniously onto the floor.
“Ooof!” Dr. Whooves let out a pained grunt as he landed on his back. Setting himself upright, he found Celestia nuzzling his cheek.
“So please, make sure they return,” she said quietly. And with that, Celestia exited the library, but not before turning around to give the Doctor a wink and a few more words, “because if you succeed, well… let’s just say that I learned quite a few tricks since you’ve been gone.”
And the Doctor was left alone in the library, his expression utterly flabbergasted and his jaw hanging slack as he tried to come to terms with what just happened.
“What!? WHAT!?”